Related papers: Nonlinear amplification of adhesion forces in inte…
The compression of soft elastic matter and biological tissue can lead to creasing, an instability where a surface folds sharply into periodic self-contacts. Intriguingly, the unfolding of the surface upon releasing the strain is usually not…
We develop a theory of static friction by modeling the homogeneous surfaces of contact as being composed of a regular array of compressible elastic smooth microscopic inclines. Static friction is thought of as the resistance due to having…
The process of crumpling a sheet and compacting it into a ball is dependent on many parameters that are difficult to disentangle. We study the effect of plasticity on the crumpling process, and disentangle the effects of plasticity and…
A model system has been recently developed to study adhesion. It consists of a giant lipid bilayer vesicle with reconstituted lipo-polymers (repellers) as well as with lipo-ligands recognized by receptors covering the substrate. Adhesion in…
This paper presents an analytical study about the behavior of arbitrary shaped and sized non-cohesive two-dimensional granular materials. Several mechanical properties and relations are unraveled by connecting micro and macro scales in an…
In granular media, the presence of even small amounts of interparticle cohesion manifests as an increase in the bulk strength and stiffness, effects that are typically associated with an increase in the average number of constraints per…
Mutual forces can be induced between coupled structures when illuminated by external acoustic waves. In this Letter, we propose a concept of asymmetric interaction between two coupled plate-like structures, which is generated by oppositely…
The effective adhesive properties of heterogeneous thin films are characterized through a combined experimental and theoretical investigation. By bridging scales, we show how variations of elastic or adhesive properties at the microscale…
Contact electrification and triboelectrification are well-known in the case of dissimilar materials, however the case of charge exchange during friction between nominally identical insulating materials is less documented. We experimentally…
In order to understand the nature of friction in closely-packed granular materials, a discrete element simulation on granular layers subjected to isobaric plain shear is performed. It is found that the friction coefficient increases as the…
The macroscopic friction of particulate materials often weakens as the flow rate is increased, leading to potentially disastrous intermittent phenomena including earthquakes and landslides. We theoretically and numerically study this…
We explore dynamic structural superlubricity for the case of a relatively large contact area, where the friction force is proportional to the area (exceeding $\sim 100\,nm^2$) experimentally, numerically, and theoretically. We use a setup…
We study the scaling properties of forced folding of thin materials of different geometry. The scaling relations implying the topological crossovers from the folding of threedimensional plates to the folding of two-dimensional sheets, and…
Predicting the large-amplitude deformations of thin elastic sheets is difficult due to the complications of self-contact, geometric nonlinearities, and a multitude of low-lying energy states. We study a simple two-dimensional setting where…
The mechanical properties of the cell depend crucially on the tension of its cytoskeleton, a biopolymer network that is put under stress by active motor proteins. While the fibrous nature of the network is known to strongly affect the…
We examine the nonequilibrium nature of two-phase fluid displacements in a quasi-two-dimensional medium (a model open fracture), in the presence of localized constrictions ("defects"), from a theoretical and numerical standpoint. Our…
Soft and biological matter come in a variety of shapes and geometries. When soft surfaces that do not fit into each other due to a mismatch in Gaussian curvatures form an interface, beautiful geometry-induced patterns emerge. In this paper,…
Animal cells in tissues are supported by biopolymer matrices, which typically exhibit highly nonlinear mechanical properties. While the linear elasticity of the matrix can significantly impact cell mechanics and functionality, it remains…
Since the discovery of the Amonton's law and with support of modern tribological models, friction between surfaces of three-dimensional materials is known to generally increase when the surfaces are in closer contact. Here, using molecular…
Squeezing of phonons due to the non-linear coupling to electrons is a way to enhance superconductivity as theoretically studied in a recent work [Kennes et al. Nature Physics 13, 479 (2017)]. We study quadratic electron-phonon interaction…